Crews finish tearing down collapsed brick facade in Passaic

PASSAIC — A construction crew removed pieces of a crumbling façade from a factory on Blaine Street on Friday, a day after an accident that sent a column of bricks crashing to the sidewalk.

Two workers jumped aboard a cherry picker with hooks and hammers and spent roughly an hour tearing down the remains of a brick column that had collapsed on Thursday. The owner of the building watched from the sidewalk as the workers, who said they were employed by Southshore Contracting in Woodbridge, removed the loose pieces.

Workers triggered a collapse Thursday morning when they tried to remove a column of bricks from a corner of the building using a cable tied to a pickup. The work was being done without permits, city officials said.

The collapse dumped a pile of bricks onto the sidewalk and sent some bricks hurtling across the street. Although no one was hurt, Passaic Fire Chief Patrick Trentacost said firefighters briefly evacuated five homes across the street and that the response cost “lots of equipment and manpower.”

Blaine Street has been closed for several days while a contractor hired by the city digs up the street as part of a road and sidewalk reconstruction project. Trentacost said the owner of the factory apparently tried to take advantage of the road closure to remove some of the façade from his building.

The owner of the factory, identified by city officials as George Szakacs, did not return a phone call seeking comment on Friday.

Passaic Construction Official, John Miskovsky, said Friday he was still investigating the accident and had not decided whether he would issue a summons to the owner. “I’d rather see the money go back into the building,” he said.